Open weight Judo World Championships – Analysis of weigh-in

The Judo World Championship Open weight is a standalone competition, where anybody form any weight category can compete. In theory athletes of -60kg would be allowed to compete against the giants of +100kg, but practically the lightest athlete came from -90kg weight division.

Surprisingly enough, even though there is no weight limit, the athletes had to get their weight checked. The IJF has published the list of weights and it can give an interesting insights of how competitions would look if athletes didn’t cut weight. I believe that the competitors who had time to prepare, focused on getting their body weight to its optimal weight, where they can perform the best.

The competition takes place over two days, one day for men and one for women. The IJF had published the list of men. 40 competitors are participating, and only 8 of them are not normally competing in the +100 weight category. 6 athletes come from -100kg and 2 from -90kg. The lightest athlete is Ilias Iliadis who came back from retirement. He weighed in at only 94.9kg, which makes you wonder if he had to cut weight at all to compete -90kg. The heaviest player is Nadjib Temmar weighing 178.4kg, nearly double as much as Iliadis.

Competitors who come from -100kg weighed in average 107.2kg

It’s interesting to see the real weights of the athletes that usually compete under a certain weight. For example Henk Grol came in 112.3kg, while he’s normally fighting -100kg. He didn’t compete since the Olympics and maybe he’s planning to switch to the higher weight. Maret Cyrille is another player coming from -100kg, but weighing 116.2kg. In the Grand Slam of Abu Dhabi he did go up to +100kg and won the event. Was this just a preparation for the World Championships or is he planning to stay there?

Without Maret and Grol the average weigh of athletes who came from -100kg is 103.6kg

I would expect them to weigh more, considering that -60kg athletes cut much more than 3.6kg. I guess that they felt that the best way to face much heavier athletes wouldn’t be to gain weight and play the same game, but to be as fit as possible.

The most likely to win is not necessarily the heaviest

How would you approach an event like this? Increase your weight? The reason why many athletes cut weight is to have a strength advantage over lighter opponents. However in +100kg and the open weight this tactic is a bit tricky. I asked a +100kg fighter about it and he said that he believes it’s not just a matter of strength but also of condition. The heavier men in his category are the ones with the worst condition. They can barely stand for a whole fight.

I’ve read an interview with Riner where he said that he likes to lose a few kilograms before a competition to feel better in the fight. Maybe this is also the strategy Iliadis will be using. He could have opt to gain weight but instead he stayed light. Maybe he’s hoping to use speed as his advantage?

The average weight of the competitors is 130.6 kg

When you think about it, when it comes to body weight – Riner himself not so far away from the being an average guy. He weighed 142.3kg, while his competitors weighed 130.6kg. If we remove the -90kg and the -100kg athletes from the equation, the average weight is 136.9kg.

The battle of fighting styles

Thanks to the many different competitors from different weight categories, we will see more variety of fighting styles and tactics. The lighter fighters will have to count on their speed and condition, while the heavier will probably aim to score as fast as they can.

A fight between Iliadis and Temmar is not likely to happen, but I would love to see it if it does. It will be a pure fight of weight vs. speed and I’m sure both fighters will take their advantages to the extreme.

Fighting someone as heavy as Temmar will be a whole lot different than fighting someone like Iliadis who is maybe not the strongest but likely to be the quickest.

Hi Amelie,
I know about your interesting article How tall are Olympic athletes. I found presented differencies among sports are logical.
In general it is proper answer about BMI index. It is useless for top athletes I agree. But for the general population it is still usable, easy and fast way to see where you nearly are. For athletes you definitely need complete body’s composition analysis. For top athletes we control it regularly.
In +100 and +78 categories there is no weight limit. It could be higher deviations in % of fat and body’s composition among fighters.
What is recommended % fat for mentioned categories? The same interval for women and men as for other categories?
I don’t have data about it. But I know that many top fighters have a lot of fat.
What is the reason? Bad nutrition or strategy to build as much kilos as possible? Even if it is fat.
Are there any known strategies and recommendations about proper weight or body’s composition for top fighters in +100 and +78 categories?
That’s the reason I asked at the end of my comment: Is it bad or good? Advantage or weakness?
Open (super heavy weight) category is becoming more interesting and is very attractive. Therefore answering these questions are important for long term planning.
Maybe some paralell with SUMO fighter’s weight strategy? What is the difference?
Regards
Mirko

I found your question very interesting. I ran a quick search about the fat percentages of Sumo wrestlers. From the researches I found they have about 26-34% body fat , which is not as much as one would expect. One forum said that as soon as they go over 38% they need to lose weight and that they’re fat distribution is mostly subcutaneous and not visceral (It’s a forum so I don’t have a source for that). A lot of references are in Japanese, so I’m not really able to read it. Personally I don’t think the strategy of Sumo is comparable to heavy weight in judo. Sumo fights are much shorter, I don’t think they last longer than a minute while judo players need to be able to fight for longer than 4 minutes in case of golden scores.

As far as I know, there are not a lot of studies done around judo players of +100kg and +78kg. In most researches they are kind of left out. Maybe it could be and interesting topic for a thesis.

You are asking about the reasons that heavy weight judokas have high fat percentages, all I can offer you is an educated guess. I believe that high level fighters, even the ones with the higher fat percentage, take a very good care of their nutrition and that the reason for their weight is a combination of genetics and strategy. I think that when there is a weight limit, fighters with high fat percentage will not survive because it comes on the expense of muscle mass. When there is no weight limit, fighters can have both.